Form fields on multi screen app updating as null unless screen is visited

[thepenguin]

The setup:

A multi-screen app (the original form had 177 fields in it, so we had to split it up for performance reasons)

A sidebar with tabs control that allows users to jump between screens (all of the examples I have seen online have a "next" and "previous" button, but I want to avoid this if possible be cause there are 17 screens and I want users to be able to come in, select a draft, edit details on one screen and leave without having to visit all 17 screens.

Dataverse table is updated using Patch('Table',var_fromitem,Form1.Updates,Form1.Updates, etc)

The problem:

If you don't visit a screen, the controls on that screen update the datasource with null values. I noticed it because I have a notification that alerts if required fields are missing and tells you which screen they're on. All I have to do is navigate to that screen(s) and then when I try submit again, it works.

Replicating the issue:

I'm pretty sure you could do this with 2 screens with a save button on screen one, some required fields on screen two and some way to navigate between the two. Split a form between the two, submit it, reload the record and try to submit again without visiting screen two. Do you get the same problem?

Just FYI, when it was all one form and I was doing SubmitForm() everything worked perfectly. If I visit every screen it works perfectly. The only thing that seems to mess it up is if I don't visit a screen.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have

[FLMike]

Hi @thepenguin 

This is because the controls are considered invisible and therefor do not trigger until you go to the screen (which is a built in thing) to stop excess memory usage etc.

Thats why on a single screen it works because the Defaults etc all trigger and bingo you have data.

I never recommend to people to do what you have there, and I have lots of customers who try to do it, (multi--screen but not a requirement to view the screen).

If I have helped you, I would really appreciate if you please Mark my answer as Resolved/Answered, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

[thepenguin]

Thanks, @FLMike. That sounds exactly like the problem, although I was hoping that toggling the "Disable optimization for hidden controls" setting in retired updates might help, but no.

Can you tell me what you suggest doing instead of this approach? One thing that appears to work is to loop through the collection of screens in a forall and navigate to them every time a draft is loaded, but this feels hokey

[FLMike]

Hi @thepenguin 

Ok, by even recommending this most of the others (including myself) are gonna go argggggg

You could look into placing a Label on each screen.

Hide it

Then from whatever screen you will see.. you could call the OnSelect of that label. In that code, look at putting stuff in that will force your things to load. Without seeing it i cannot tell you exactly but.. .yeah /headInShame

Its that or cycle through, or put ALL the code that loads the stuff on THOSE screen.. into the screen you do see 😞 and reference controls bleh from there etc.

All ugly things to do, but possible.

If I have helped you, I would really appreciate if you please Mark my answer as Resolved/Answered, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

[thepenguin]

Thanks for the suggestions, @FLMike . Agreed -neither sound great, but I will keep them in mind.

On other idea that I had was that I have noticed subtle differences between using the visible property and giving things a zero height.

So I'm thinking that maybe I can get around this by putting all the forms on one screen and using the tabs to give them 0 or full height. Getting away from one big form has two advantages for me - load times and faster scrolling. The zero height approach probably isn't going to help with the first but it will help with the second, as most of the 17 forms fit into one screen, so don't require scrolling anyway.

Do you think it's worth a shot, or are data cards contained within 0 height forms considered hidden as well?

[FLMike · Accepted solution]

I do the below as well

Put them all on a single Screen

But set the X to ScreenWidth.X + 10 or 50 or 1 doesnt matter, they will be INVISIBLe from the perspective that they are off the visible plane, but are not invisible, and you just swap by swapping the currents to that max width + 1 etc

So essentially keep track of which screen is visible

Create a Collection and use it to track which is visible from a X factor plane.

If I have helped you, I would really appreciate if you please Mark my answer as Resolved/Answered, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

[thepenguin]

Oh, nice. Makes sense and seems like the least kludgy of all the options. Thanks, @FLMike !

[FLMike]

Nice thing is, as you swap them, i've never seen a flicker or anything, so its just bingo new form form is visible